Archive for October, 2012

As some of you may recall, I’m currently pursuing my executive master’s degree at the Stern of School Business, New York University. It was sort of last minute decision, but overall experience is quite positive so far. We have class every the other months and meet in New York, Hong Kong, and Amsterdam.

Given format of classes is designed for working professional whose average age is early-mid forties with 15+ years of professional experiences. It is practical but also it has good academic balance. Top-notch finance faculty such as Ed Altman and Robert Engle are good examples who bring academic rigor to the class.

I am currently reading bankruptcy and reorganization cases to prepare for our 3rd module that starts in a week in New York. Quite scary as in it is right after Franken-storm Hurricane Sandy. Though, I’m already looking forward to mingling with cohorts who have come from 20 some countries. We’ve already become good friends.

We learn things from everywhere and everyone. Though, it’s great idea to pick something in a more structured way at such a vibrant venue where professional and academic knowledge meets and creates impact.

What can you do with 3 minutes?
You may think of instant cup noodle. You can also think of copy phrase from diet advertisement saying "you will lose 15 lbs in two weeks if you put 3 minutes efforts every day."
3 minutes is short that you can almost ignore. Though, like other self-motivation people often say if you can collect small particles of time, you can achieve huge. Though, I’m not here to say any sort of self-help type answer for "what can you do with precious 3 minutes?"

3 minutes, another hurdle that e-Book needs to overcome.
Recent trend in mobile Internet and app is extremely instant. On the phone, you quickly grab what you want and go. People seem to spend good amount of time on their lovey-dovey iPhones. Though, what you do is flipping apps, make a quick mention, and read stuffs that won’t take more than a minute or two. That is one of reasons that e-Book does not really quickly break into casual readers’ market with smart devices. We tend to spend less time on each item (or app) Ultra viral YouTube music video Gangnam Style runs 3~4 minutes but entertains us. Casual game won’t take too much time, either, but you still get what you want. "instant fun." As an example, I am a relatively quick reader but I am still bit urged when I read on my Kindle App on my Android phone. Maybe lack of battery power or tiny screen itching my eyes may play big role. But, bigger problem is poor layout and editorial methods that once worked in the traditional book publication process won’t be suitable to the smart device world. Lengthy traditional blogging style even quickly changes to fit into wider audience who adopt reading habits on their smart devices.

App-preneur, can you get it?
I wrestle with a number of app-preneurs (app + entrepreneur) these days. There are still lots of challenges attracting large user base and creating sustainable product life cycle. Profiting from app is yet another challenge in spite of there is already a consumer app that generates hefty $200,000 a day like AniPang, a rock star casual game app in Korea. Though, whoever wants to make a mark in the interactive media industry or app industry, needs to really think of how to slice their products to fit into this extremely short time consuming consumer behavior.

Journalist at the major news media often catches hot business idea early on. Journalist puts up his radar high to identify cutting-edge news source anytime and anywhere. It is always a journalist’s job to deliver impact news. We live in the world with enormous supply of innovation and great new things. Sometimes, that is why innovation does not feel like innovation anymore. To get journalist’s attention, business has to standout as search for eye-catching news will never end.

Major news media would not cover everything. People love to hear about business with a clear character and story to tell. Furthermore, start-up has to have noteworthy business milestone to show in order to attract journalist’s coverage. Though, to standout among thousands news feed is going to be tough. For example, if you sit in front of professional news syndicate terminal like Thomson Reuters or just any other online news channel, you see all different sorts of news feeds rapidly flow down to the bottom. Business news release is quite overwhelming. To be noteworthy, especially, in the start-up world, is getting tougher.

Noteworthy business idea may grow to be a business-worthy start-up. Eventually, some of them may become investment-worthy business. Many great business idea often follow this 3 step approach.

First, find a way to make your business to be noteworthy in the major news media. Imagine that your company would be on the New York Times someday. What story would you tell?

Second, prove that your business has a solid business logic creating profit. If your business is exciting, but only a few people open their wallets, it is not going to be business-worthy.

Third, build momentum and make a way to rapidly scale up your business. That’s how to make your business attractive to many different investors.Noble Ambition

Early this year, along with 10 leading practitioners and professors, I co-authored the book called “Angel Investor” for Korean audience. It is published by Korea Entrepreneurship Foundation (ISBN 978-89-97224-02-9). Book was first presented at the KBAA (Korea Business Angels Association) Kick-Off Mixer at SKT Tower on Oct 18th, 2012.